With yet another ridiculous amount of 'money' being gambled on the stock exchange - how much, £2 billion? I thought I might see if there was a rule book. I found this one. It's Canadian, but I suppose they are all pretty much the same.http://www.iiroc.ca/English/Documents/Rulebook/UMIR0202_en.pdfI noticed this bit, It comes under 'Manipulative or Deceptive Activities'.(d) purchasing a security with the intention of making a sale of the same or a different number of units of the security or a related security on a marketplace at a price which is below the price of the last sale of a standard trading unit of such security displayed in a consolidated market display. If persons know or ought reasonably to know that they are engaging or participating in these or similar types of activities those persons will be in breach of subsection (1) of Rule 2.2 irrespective of whether such method, act or practice results in a false or misleading appearance of trading activity or interest in the purchase or sale of a security or an artificial ask price, bid price or sale price for a security or a related security. Well In my understanding this is the short selling I was looking at the other day. I was also trying to find out what 'Liquid Stocks' and 'Highly Liquid Stocks' are. Now it seems to me that these should be called 'Nitro Stocks' as it looks as though this is where it all blows up in your face. I assume this is where all that 'money' was lost.The regulatory bodies behind the rules evidently are toothless, in that they can't prevent this type of trading. Or perhaps they don't want to. It is one of those 'anything is legal if you don't get caught' sort of situations.I wonder if we actually need this kind of stock market at all? None of it is actually real if you can't convert 'money' back into a 'real' commodity like Silver, or Gold. With all the Governments obviously buying up scrap jewellery gold at the moment, (Granny's Teeth)(I think Gordon Brown ought to go to gaol as well for selling British gold at an all time low) there is a definate desire to return to a Gold Standard. By the way, Britain does have gold, you just have to find it and dig it up!We have a nice 3 thousand year old Torque we dug up in Jersey, it was under a house that was demolished in town. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/qvDryqEiRom6D1E3jDqKnAWell it looks as though giving gold 'gifts' has always been part of the 'banking' structure. Don't worry the one on display is a fake, this is our 'Crown Jewel', so It's not going to be left lying around. The Town Museum is an award winning Museum as well. Oops, looks Like Ireland has the Gold! Along with some very nice oysters! Better start being nice to them.Well this isn't very nice at all, read this page, how come the irish are not allowed to trade gold and Silver then? How come Germany is allowed to sell theirs without an extra 14% tax premium. This is definately 'lead baloon' strategy from Europe. http://www.angloirishgold.com/http://www.mineralsireland.ie/NR/rdonlyres/DE03860F-E4EE-4D03-83C6-13E92E52A623/0/Gold_article.pdf Forget the Potato Famine you guys, and get on with digging up some gold! http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/pls/portallive/docs/1/30365696.PDF Yup, knew there was gold in them there hills. Please don't ruin the oysters, I want to go back sometime and have another snack.

I wonder if the Banks should be stopped from trading on the stock markets altogether. This seems far too risky to let some idiot with a keyboard wipe out a proper bank. Well they aren't proper banks if they are trading our money. When you think that they are charging huge interest rates, because the Government has to lend them the money to lend us, none of it makes the slightest bit of sense. I suppose the money that just got wiped off got lent to that bank from public tax funds.It's ridiculous, the banks have lent money to governments at say 9% at the moment. The Governments are charging the banks say 8.5% to borrow public funds, so they can't put that money into reducing tax or infrastructure, and Jo Blogs on the street has to pay 9% for a genuine loan. (Which we have agreed is unrepayable).. .. unless there is massive deflation, which is actually hyper-inflation, they call it deflation, because they can't print the money fast enough.Why isn't there a mechanism for calling stalemate like there is in the Game of Chess? Oh, sorry that's Jubilee, debt forgiveness. I like being a pawn. Pawns sit around for ages minding their own business, and everybody forgets them. That's when they come into their own, you threaten your opponents with major peices, and they suddenly find the pawns have their exit moves covered.Pawns are unpredictable, they can go on an offensive just as easily as being defensive. The general public now have their 'Buying Voice' as a tool, and the means to communicate. That makes the masses more powerful than the oligarchy. The French Revolution was a very bloody affair, (we ought to let the oligarchs live this time).I did notice a huge complex of flats near the Loire last night on French TV. I am sorry but some people might like the way they look, I don't. I thought the views were fantastic though, just as they say, the best things in life are free. I think this would be an ideal end for all those people proven to be fraudsters in Banking, and stock markets. Confiscate all the wealth and assets of people who are proven to have defrauded the system to repay their debt to society. Only allow them the benefits system to live off, and never allow them to get a job again. It would be cheaper than putting them in prison, and they would have to spend their social security money just the same as a lot of people have to try to manage.The thing that occurs to me is how elegant the 10 commandments are. I think the more rules you have, the easier it is to work out how to break the rules. When you know what the rules are meant to stop you doing, it is a fast track education into how to break the rules. With the Ten Commandments God gave the world through Moses, to His people, who have shared them with the rest of us, there is an elegant economy of personal intent. You might think breaking these God given rules carries much weight with the world right now, but God has never changed them.Meanwhile on the expenditure the US are going to make on upsetting all of Europe and Russia with their plans for more underhand creepy-ness that is going to keep the man in the street jobless, here is a snip from RT about their nasty foreign policy. http://rt.com/news/amd-moscow-race-russia-683/They might get permission to put the sites on other peoples land like a load of maurauding locusts, but there is nothing to say the slugs won't get into their circuit boards, they seem to be partial to silicon these days. How about just not doing this? There isn't any point in having neuclear weapons these days, we all know how badly it affects our health if a reactor blows up. I thought everyone was looking to de-commision their neuclear weapons, what happened to that initiative?Anyway I started a portrait for my friend this morning, so I have something realy rewarding to do. It is going to be a present, for all the nice things our friends do for us. Would I want to live with the same values and attitudes towards wealth as everyone else... Nah! Give me the gruel, and a mind of my own, and a chat with God every now and again, and a paintbrush.